Wirelessly blogging the space station

I'm sitting on a rock a few meters from my front door, staring into the inky black sky at a dot that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. I say "seemingly" because I knew precisely when and where it would appear.

See, I'm watching the International Space Station fly over my house. I periodically go outside when the NASA tracking software says viewing opportunities will be favorable, crane my neck skyward and hope I didn't misread the data.

There's no logical reason why I'm doing this. Already a couple of neighbors have driven by and given me weird looks, wondering what a guy in a trenchcoat is doing outside with a glowing notebook computer on his lap and a similarly glowing PalmPilot beside him.

The fact that I am sitting here on a lonely rock, typing this as the craft zips 350 km over my head at some 28,000 km/hr doesn't accomplish anything tangible and doesn't contribute to the advancement of humankind. But it makes the unreal seem somewhat more real and the distantly magical somewhat less distant - but no less magical. It's one of those little non-routine things that you can do over the course of an otherwise routine day, one of those things that makes you stop and mumble "cool" under your breath.

I hope you find similarly neat little things to fill your days as well. Life wouldn't be the same without them.